


fullmetal avatar

by badgerterritory



Category: Avatar: Legend of Korra
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-01-18
Updated: 2015-01-18
Packaged: 2018-03-08 03:44:25
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 958
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3194027
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/badgerterritory/pseuds/badgerterritory
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>This will collect any and all Avatar automail AU fics. Based on a tumblr post by tumblr user emclainable</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. the prologue

When Korra had woken up, it was her father who had to break the news. The best they could do was concentrate the poison in her limbs and amputate. There was no poison left in her body, but they had to remove an arm and leg.

 And now she was confined to a wheelchair. Even Katara, with all her skill and spirit water, couldn’t do anything to regenerate the limbs. And at the time? Korra couldn’t see how she could be an Avatar from a wheelchair.

Asami was gently holding her hand, telling her that she was there for Korra. Bitterly, Korra wanted to tell Asami to go away until she found a way to give her back her limbs, but she didn’t.

During the next few months, Korra set herself a goal to recover as much as she could. Asami made her a special wheelchair which ran on electricity so she didn’t have to worry about pushing herself, and one day sat down to tell her about a special prosthetic Future Industries had been developing, which she was calling automail.

Asami quickly added, “It’s still in the prototype stages. But it’s very promising. Most of the people who’ve received one can bend with those limbs again, and it’s very rare to have any problems with it. If you joined the trial, you could be fitted for an automail within a month, maybe less.”

After thinking it over, Korra agreed.

It wasn’t that she thought she was useless. Far from it; she was settling into a role of mediator, trying to use her experiences to help her see multiple sides of the problems brought before her and bring around peaceful solutions. She was still working through everything that happened to her, and she was terrified of the Avatar state, but she was better than when she’d woken up.

Korra just honestly missed bending. It was harder without her right arm, without being able to stand. And without bending, a part of her life was missing.

It took two weeks for Korra to receive her first automail, a leg. Asami performed the attachment herself, first attaching all of her nerves to the automail’s housing, and then the limb itself. It was painful, but Korra refused to make a noise or shed a tear. She bit down and said to herself: This is what you wanted. Don’t get delicate now that the hard work’s starting.

When she took her first few tentative steps, it felt like victory, the first step towards bending again.

A week after the leg was the arm, and a month later Asami was ready to let Korra try bending.

Korra started with water, feeling the flow in her new limbs. Then fire, then air, then earth, the powerful movements putting the most strain on the automail. When she was done, Asami sat her down to check the hardware. Korra was grinning like an idiot.

She could bend again.


	2. the mechanics

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Asami works out a bug in her design.

Asami tapped the pencil against her desk, staring at the design. For general use, automail could be designed out of a variety of materials, but for combat automail? Metalbenders could attack any piece that wasn’t made of platinum.

Plus, there was the issue of attachments. She’d had the idea, early on, to equip the automail with additional abilities, like the ability to electrocute opponents. But depending on the material, that ranged from difficult to impossible.

And Asami didn’t want to bring up an idea if she wasn’t sure it would work.

She already solved most of the other problems. She knew how to connect it to the nervous system, although that required a permanent housing to be surgically attached. She knew how to generate enough power without an external power source to keep it going for a lifetime. She even managed to figure out how to scale the parts to potentially any size.

The one thing Asami couldn’t get past was the material problem.

A soft knock on her door brought her out of her head. “Come in,” she said.

Mako entered, looking a little awkward. “I had some free time.” He raised a tray with two disposable cups. “Thought I’d come by with some tea. As a peace offering. I know things got… weird.”

“Thanks.” Asami accepted one of the cups and sipped it. “Honestly, it’s good to see a friend. Korra doesn’t want to see anyone just yet, you and your brother have been so busy, and I’ve been busy, too. I’m banging my head against a wall trying to figure this out. It’s a new type of prosthetic. It’ll be directly attached to the nerves, but I haven’t figured out what I can make it out of. I’m hesitant to use platinum for the whole thing, but that’s the only way it’ll be entirely impervious to metalbending.”

Mako shrugged. “Well… maybe you won’t have to. Why don’t you talk to some people about it? I remember Tenzin saying that the reason bloodbending can only be done on a full moon is because people have, like, a spiritual connection to their bodies that overrides waterbending. Maybe you could use that somehow?”

Asami pursed her lips, staring down at her desk. “Maybe. I’ll talk to him. Thanks, Mako.”

Once he left, Asami opened her desk drawer and pulled out the only assembled automail arm, inspecting it. She’d made it out of steel, mainly, with some other, lighter metals mixed in. Asami pressed a button and her assistant came in. “Can you please get me the volunteer? I think I’m ready to try the first attachment tests. And find a metalbender, too.”

“Yes, Miss Sato,” her assistant said, closing the door behind her. Asami set the automail down, considering it for a moment before picking up her tools.


End file.
